Thin thickness gilding determined by x‐rays ratios from EDXRF‐spectra

A by‐product of energy‐dispersive X‐ray fluorescence (EDXRF)‐analysis consists of using the ratios of selected X‐ray peaks to determine the thickness of multilayered objects. Three different methods were developed in the past, all because the two main K or L X‐lines from an EDXRF spectrum emitted by a chemical element have a distinct energy and are differently attenuated by an overlying layer. This specific subject has many papers dedicated, but only a few considerations were devoted to the limits of these methods, that is, the range, for example, of gold thickness that can be usefully determined by each method. This paper defines these limits in the specific case of thin gilding (with d